RECENT & HISTORICAL THREATS TO FREEDOM

     It is somehow ironic that the people most eager to verbally endorse liberty and the constitution and to boast about what a wonderfully free nation we live in are often the same people who seek to slowly scrape away at that freedom. What they very often fail to understand is that freedom is ugly. They think that because freedom is something worth dying for it must be a thing of beauty and perfection. And so, naturally, those things they find distasteful and abhorrent they gleefully dismiss as evils not protected by liberty. Living free, however, is not to live in beauty. It is not poetry incarnate. It is having to listen to ideas you may find ridiculous. It is tolerating viewpoints you may find intolerable. It is allowing others to question that which you may take on faith. It is a system in which majority rules only so long as those rulings do not infringe upon the freedom and liberty of the minority. It is a very sad statement on our great nation that in the recent past, the supreme court has had to strike down legislation passed by the majority of our congress. That means that a majority of our representation felt comfortable ratifying legislation that was contrary to the constitution, the very ideals that this country was founded on. That, to me, is something to fear. When the representation of the people is no longer concerned with upholding the liberties of those people, what has happened to our nation? The sites, actions, and/or legislation listed below are those that attempt to compromise the liberties that most of us hold so dear. I believe in the rights of these groups to aire their views, but we must insure that no group, whether a minority or majority, might compromise the freedoms of the rest. As sad a commentary as it is, I believe that a good many people would easily trade their freedom for safety, prosperity, and conformity.
 
 

HISTORICAL

Sedition Act of 1798
 Espionage Act of 1917
Resulted in the jailing and/or deportation of thousands of socialists, pacifists, and union organizers during what came to be known as the Palmer Raids.
 Info on Palmer Raids
 Sedition Act of 1918
Increased the powers of the Espionage Act.

MARSHALL ROUNDUPS
 Roundup: America's WWII Secret
Dateline story on how thousands of Japanese and German immigrants living in Central America were kidnapped and traded to Axis powers by the U.S. government. Even German Jews were returned to await an uncertain fate.
 Text of Marshall Order
 Text of 1943 State Department Memo
 Text of Alien Enemy Control Unit Memo

INTERNMENT

Executive Order 9066
Roosevelt sends Americans with yellow skin to internment camps, suspending the
freedoms in the U.S. we claimed to be fighting for.
 Office of Redress Administration
Responsible for finding and compensating victims of internment.
 The Japanese American Internment
A comprehensive site filled with text, photos, and links relating to the internment.
 Japanese American Internment in Concentration Camps
Includes sections on relevant statutes, court cases, legislative history and law reviews.
 Japanese American Internment Facts
A concise listing of essential internment facts compiled by the Japanese American National Museum

 

RECENT

 

 A Tangled Web: A History of CIA Complicity in Drug :part of congressional record under 

INTELLIGENCE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 1999 (House of Representatives - May 07, 1998) Had to provide a copy as cannot link directly. If you wish to see the original, go to bottom of page, hit home, and search for "Meyer Lansky".

Free Speech Responsibility green ribbon decency censorship campaign : believe in upholding the 1st amendment so long as it is "decent" and "responsible". Otherwise it should be censored. Huh?!!

Dark Alliance: The Crack Explosion The now famous San Jose Mercury report detailing the

C.I.A. connection to the crack epidemic. If these guys don't work for us, who the hell do they work for?

Drug War Masquerade San Antonio Current article on the accidental marine corp killing of a Texas youth while fighting the "drug war". This was the first ever marine corp killing of a citizen on U.S. soil."For more than a century, stationing U.S. soldiers in American backyards was against the law. The Posse Comitatus Act, passed by Congress in 1878, made it a felony to deputize the armed services for domestic duty.Congress began chipping away at Posse Comitatus in 1982, the same year then-Vice President Bush was put in charge of the War on Drugs -- with a defense bill that allowed the military to loan equipment and facilities to civilian law enforcement agencies.Though it no longer exists, this separation of military and police powers is still touted in high school civics textbooks as a hallmark of U.S. society and democratic ideals."

H.R.2922 "To amend title 10, United States Code, to authorize the Secretary of Defense toassign members of the Armed Forces, under certain circumstances and subject to certain conditions, to assist the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the United States Customs Service in the performance of border protection functions." 


          Bibliography of good War on Drugs sources

Final Report for the Independent Council for Iran/Contra Matters 

Kerry Senate Committee Report : Investigation of CIA/drug/contra ring.

Freedom of Religion Act : would allow prayer and/or "witnessing" for anyone working in a public building (school, fed buildings, etc.) That's on the clock folks. It would allow religious indoctrination of students by teachers regardless of the wishes of the parents. It also describes religion as belief in god. That explicitly denies this "freedom of religion" to those belonging to spiritual sects that do not necessarily avow a belief in a central deity.

Anti Flag Desecration Act : like it or hate it, desecration of a flag is a free expression of anti-government sentiment. 

 Bowers vs. Hardwick Case : Supreme court found GA man "guilty" of consensual sodomy. By the way, sodomy is ANY form of sex not intent on conception. 

 FCC Spectrum Giveaway : FCC will allot more frequencies only to existing TV license holders(ie. Disney, Westinghouse, etc.). 

 

 

HOPE & COMFORT

U.S. Constitution    Bill of Rights   Declaration of Independence 


Read It!!!
 Human Rights Information Act : bill to force CIA and other intelligence agencies to disclose information they have withheld on human rights atrocities in Guatemala and Honduras.
Freedom Forum : good source for up to date info on 1st amendment issues
American Civil Liberties Union : defenders of liberty, regardless of how ugly; good listing of current issues



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Please feel free to contact me regarding criticisms, compliments, and/or new link recommendations.